Family Tree
Having bore witness to the full spectrum of Greensleeveses across all (accessible) time, I've come to an understanding of a Greensleeves geneology theory of sorts
Music is tradition and the song Greensleeves has independently sprung up in different contexts, in different scenes, among branches of a grand genre-geneology family tree. I plan to map out that tree by defining the archtypes that make up versions of Greensleeves
The typology of Greensleeves is an excercise in musicology and categorization. We start with these base elements:
- Greensleeves as medieval period music
- Greensleeves as a romantic ballad
- Greensleeves as default music
- Greensleeves as a Christmas carol
- Greensleeves as fantasy
- And finally, Greensleeves as default music
From these elements, all other archtypes grow. Some versions contains a handful of elements, and others, only one. To list some resultant branches:
- Weirdo experimental (pure noise)
- Fantasia sweeping orchestral (opera)
- Solo piano (classical, jazz)
- Folk ensemble (celtic, modern)
- Ironic electronic (big, energetic, dance)
- Celestial (harp, soothing, new age, meditative)
- Oldies (traditional pop, Bing Crosby, old-timey)
- Jazz standard
- Punk rock (metal, beat, surf, noise)
- Renaisance (tutors, lute, baroque)
- Solo guitar
- Novelty (animal sounds, music box)
- Big band arrangement
- Romantic (lush, rhythmic, easy listening)
- Chiptune (emulation)
- Power chorus (Christian, earnest, gospel)
- Dark (ambient, emo, goth, mystery)
- Garage (indie, lo-fi, demo, practice)
- Stylistic (reggae, funk, techno, world fusion)
- Media (sound clip, soundtrack, commercial)
- High production (symphonic rock, holy, impressive)
There is much more to go into here, but perhaps when viewing this list, some examples come to mind?
If not, worry not - stick around this site long enough and they eventually will
